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Pigeon a LA Franca1se

A stuffed pigeon stewed in consommé with parsley, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Clean and truss the pigeons, removing the necks, wings, and feet.

  2. Cover each pigeon with a slice of fat bacon.

  3. Stuff the pigeons with a mixture of parsley, bread crumbs, pounded livers, egg, pepper, and salt.

Stew and serve

  1. Place the stuffed pigeons in a stewpan with chicken consommé, chopped parsley, chives, sugar, and salt.

  2. Let them stew for 25 minutes.

  3. Serve with the sauce they were stewed in.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + chivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Bread + eggtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + chickentop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Pepper + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
Fat bacon
Bastes the birds with fat, adding moisture and savoury flavour as it cooks.
Chicken consommé
Forms the stewing liquid that becomes the sauce served with the pigeons.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stewing the stuffed pigeons. Stew gently rather than boil so the meat becomes tender without toughening. The stuffing and sauce depend on this slow, steady heat for even cooking.

Flavor stand-ins for the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, egg, pepper, chicken, sugar):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, egg, pepper, chicken, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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